9/27/2012

Chapter 4: Cameras and Photography

Depth of Field Exposure

Circle of Confusion Shutter speed
Effect of aperture Balancing f-stop and
shutter speed
Apertures
F-stop Lens types
Area Telephoto
Depth of field Wide-angle

Depth of Field

size of acceptable blur

depth of field

It is a measure of how far apart two objects can be and

still both be in reasonable focus on the film

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Depth of Field

The circle of confusion is because instead of focusing to a single

point, single points on the object appear on the sensor as circles or
disks of light, which overlap, resulting in blur.

Depth of Field

Here we can see how the circle of confusion is reduced for a

smaller aperture lens. This translates to a longer depth of field.

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Focus: Circle of Confusion

increasing depth, increasing blur (circle of confusion)

Controlling Light: Aperture

We saw how changing the diameter of the lens can

affect the depth of field of a lens.

Its not practical to change the diameter of the lens

itself, so we change a mask in front of the lens.

This is called the iris, diaphragm, or aperture of the

camera lens assembly

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Iris and Pupil: The Human Eye

Aperture: Camera Iris

In a camera lens, a set of overlapping leaves rotate

to change the diameter of an inner open space.
This allows the camera to smoothly adjust the open
space while keeping it roughly circular.

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Aperture: F-stop

You will see this aperture listed as an f-stop or f-number

This is defined as the focal length of the lens (f) divided
by the diameter of the lens (d)

f-number = f/d

Clicker Questions

What is the f-number (f-stop) of a 10 5

40 mm focal length lens at a full
aperture, diameter d=10 mm?
40 mm focal 40 mm focal
A. f/2 length lens length lens
B. f/4 at full aperture with aperture
C. f/6 f-number = f/d of diameter of diameter
D. f/8 d = 10 mm d = 5 mm
E. f/10
f-number = f/d f-number = f/d
What if we stop down the
aperture to 5 mm? (same focal =40mm/10mm =40mm/5mm
length)
f-number = f/4 f-number = f/8

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Proportionality
It is useful to be able to determine the effect on one
quantity in an equation if you change another
quantity
For example, what happens to the area of a circle if
the radius is doubled?
The area of a circle is 2 . We can say that this is
just some numbers () times the radius squared.
In math we say that the area of a circle is
proportional to the radius squared.
2

Proportionality

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Practice Problems

1. The volume, V, of a Answer:

spherical balloon is (2d)3 = 23d3 = 8d3, so the
proportional to its answer is a factor of 8
diameter, d, cubed: 2. The diameter of a circle is
V d3 proportional to the square
If the diameter is root of its area
doubled by how much d A
does the volume change? If the area is made 4 times
a) a factor of 2 larger, by what factor is the
b) a factor of 4 diameter increased?
c) a factor of 6 a) 2 b) 2 c) 4
d) a factor of 8
Ans: (4A) = 4A = 2A

F-stop and Area

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F-stop and Area

f/22 This is why f-stops have such
f/16 weird looking numbers
f/11
f/8 Each f-stop down the list (the
f/5.6 circles are not to scale)
f/4 has a diameter, d, larger by factor
Smaller
2 than the previous stop
f-stops f/2.8 2 is approximately 1.4
f/2 has an aperture area (d2) larger by
f/1.4 factor 2
Lets in twice the light

F-Number and Depth of Field

Why might we want to adjust the aperture of our

lens?

There are cases when it is just too bright, and you

have to reduce the light coming into the camera

There are also artistic reasons for adjusting the

f-number.

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Depth of Field Comparison

large f-stop, small f-stop,
small aperture, large aperture,
large depth of field short depth of field

f/32 f/5.6

Depth of Field Comparison

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Depth of Field Comparison

http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs178/appl
ets/dof.html

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Controlling Light: Shutter Speed

There is a second way that we can control the
amount of light that hits the film or CCD sensor

All cameras have a shutter that allows light to hit

the film or sensor for a controlled amount of time

This amount of time is called the shutter speed or

exposure time

Just like f-stop, there are both practical and

aesthetic reasons for adjusting the shutter speed.

Shutter Speed

1/15 sec
1/30 sec
1/60 sec
1/125 sec
Faster speeds, better able
to stop (freeze) fast motion
1/250 sec but gives darker image
1/500 sec
1/1000 sec
1/2000 sec

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Shutter Speed Comparison

1 sec 1/13 sec

Fast Shutter Speed

1/800 sec

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Intermediate Shutter Speed

Long Exposure

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Shutter Speed and F-stop

You can adjust the light hitting the film in two

ways, the shutter speed and the f-stop.
Choosing values for each is a matter of both
practical concerns and aesthetics.
There will be combinations that are just not
possible in certain lighting conditions.

For example, you cant take a large depth of field (requires

small aperture) of a fast moving object (requires fast shutter
speed) in low light conditions.

Speed and F-stop Combinations

Large depth of field f/22 1/8 sec Slow action

f/16 1/15 sec

Smaller f/11 1/30 sec Faster
f-stops speeds
f/8 1/60 sec
Each step is twice Each step is twice
the area (twice f/5.6 1/125 sec as fast (half the
the light) of the f/4 1/250 sec light) as the
previous one previous one
f/2.8 1/500 sec
f/2 1/1000 sec
Shallow depth of field f/1.4 1/2000 sec Fast action

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Too Dark? Shift the pairs

Large depth of field f/22 Slow action

f/16 1/8 sec

Smaller f/11 1/15 sec Faster
f-stops speeds
f/8 1/30 sec
Each step is twice Each step is twice
the area (twice f/5.6 1/60 sec as fast (half the
the light) of the f/4 1/125 sec light) as the
previous one previous one
f/2.8 1/250 sec
f/2 1/500 sec
Shallow depth of field f/1.4 1/1000 sec Fast action

1/2000 sec

Clicker Question

What might limit your ability to take a short

depth of field (small f-stop, larger aperture)
photograph on a bright sunny day?
A. Lens cant focus
B. Your camera has an upper limit on how fast it
can open and close the shutter
C. The object is moving too fast

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Lenses

focus ring
Indicates
approximate depth
aperture of field for range of
adjustment f-stops

Zoom Lens: 80-210 mm Focal Length

These sets of lenses move with respect to one another to both change the focal
length and to focus the object onto the film or sensor

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Telephoto Lenses
Telephoto lenses are used to take pictures of
distant objects, and make a big image of a small
portion of the scene.

We know that distant objects are imaged

approximately at the focal point of the lens.

What does this mean about the focal length of

telephoto lenses?

Telephoto Lenses
focal length
of lens

focal length
of lens

Because the image will focus at the focal point of the lens, the
longer the focal length, the larger the image. In general, telephoto
lenses have a long focal length

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Telephoto Lenses
One way to remember that telephoto lenses have a
long focal length is to think of the enormous lenses
used by the paparazzi!

Because a telephoto lens enlarges a small portion of

a large scene, it has a very small angle of view

Canon EF500mm f/4.5L

This is a fixed focal length (500mm) telephoto lens. Notice how much simpler
it is without an adjustable zoom! Focusing is easier because with a telephoto
you can assume that the objects are at infinity.

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Wide-Angle Lens
The opposite effect is achieved by a lens with a very
short focal length, called a wide-angle lens
These are often called fish-eye lenses

Nikon 14-24mm Wide-Angle Lens

This lens has optics both to focus and to change the focal length.

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Canon EF14mm f/2.8L

This is a fixed focal length (14mm) ultra wide-angle lens. This is more complex
than the telephoto because it has to have focusing optics, because you might
want to take a wide-angle photo of things at different distances.

Lens Comparison

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Lens Comparison

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